We’re supporting the Scottish Land Commission’s good practice programme by providing greater transparency around land ownership, management and decision making in Scotland.
To contact us, please telephone +44 (0) 1971 500221 or email via ruralestates.enquiries@grosvenor.com
Landholding: Grosvenor's Reay Forest Estate.
Area: 39,880 hectares.
Location: Centered around the communities of Achfary and Kylestrome, Sutherland, North West Highlands of Scotland.
Landowner: The Grosvenor Trustees.
Those with significant influence in or control over land: Nicholas Dobbs, Head of Rural Estates, Grosvenor.
Contact details:
Ben Mardall, Estate Manager, Grosvenor's Reay Forest Estate
+44 (0) 1971 500 221
ruralestates.enquiries@grosvenor.com
Overall purpose of management
Grosvenor’s Reay Forest Estate is a traditional rural estate focused on conservation and sporting activities, famed for deer, trout and salmon as well as its wild beauty and remote landscapes.
We work to protect, enhance, and restore the sensitive environmental habitats within Reay Forest and to improve local property and places.
Our aim is to be a leading example of sustainability within the rural economy – contributing to the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of our local communities.
Overview of management
In 2021, we implemented a 25-year strategy to guide the future management of the Reay Forest Estate.
The strategy provides the direction for the estate to deliver on its ambitions, contributing to the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of our local communities by preserving, restoring and enhancing the local environment, improving financial sustainability, investing in people, supporting our local communities and co-operating with a broad range of stakeholders.
In 2021, we implemented a 25-year strategy to guide the future management of the Reay Forest Estate.
The strategy provides the direction for the estate to deliver on its ambitions, contributing to the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of our local communities by preserving, restoring and enhancing the local environment, improving financial sustainability, investing in people, supporting our local communities and co-operating with a broad range of stakeholders.
Sensitive land management
Building on our accreditation from Wildlife Estates Scotland for our commitment to and success in enhancing the environment through conservation, habitat and wildlife management, we work to protect, enhance, and restore the sensitive environmental habitats at the Reay Forest.
We carefully manage our deer population using a science led approach with the aim of supporting measurable improvements in biodiversity and habitat. We are one of the few private estates to undertake extensive habitat impact monitoring which is carried out in conjunction with regular population counts to help inform the management of this important resource.
All our woodlands are managed sustainably. We will continue to manage our woodlands to improve the environment, capturing more carbon from the atmosphere, increasing woodland cover – with a specific focus on the riparian habitat – and to enhance the visual amenity.
We provide premium and sustainably sourced construction grade timber to Grosvenor’s state-of-the art saw milling facility in Cheshire, England. The timber is shipped from nearby Kinlochbervie harbour to Mostyn Docks, North Wales. Shipping is a more carbon efficient way to transport the materials as well as supporting local employment. Low grade timber from our forestry activities is used to fuel our biomass boilers as part of a strategy to reduce our emissions in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, building on and accelerating our progress in curbing our carbon footprint across our business activities.
We will drive a reduction in all forms of pollution, significantly cutting greenhouse gas emissions, including the on-going restoration of hundreds of hectares of degraded peatland identified through surveys on areas of blanket bog.
Sensitive land management
Building on our accreditation from Wildlife Estates Scotland for our commitment to and success in enhancing the environment through conservation, habitat and wildlife management, we work to protect, enhance, and restore the sensitive environmental habitats at the Reay Forest.
We carefully manage our deer population using a science led approach with the aim of supporting measurable improvements in biodiversity and habitat. We are one of the few private estates to undertake extensive habitat impact monitoring which is carried out in conjunction with regular population counts to help inform the management of this important resource.
All our woodlands are managed sustainably. We will continue to manage our woodlands to improve the environment, capturing more carbon from the atmosphere, increasing woodland cover – with a specific focus on the riparian habitat – and to enhance the visual amenity.
We provide premium and sustainably sourced construction grade timber to Grosvenor’s state-of-the art saw milling facility in Cheshire, England. The timber is shipped from nearby Kinlochbervie harbour to Mostyn Docks, North Wales. Shipping is a more carbon efficient way to transport the materials as well as supporting local employment. Low grade timber from our forestry activities is used to fuel our biomass boilers as part of a strategy to reduce our emissions in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, building on and accelerating our progress in curbing our carbon footprint across our business activities.
We will drive a reduction in all forms of pollution, significantly cutting greenhouse gas emissions, including the on-going restoration of hundreds of hectares of degraded peatland identified through surveys on areas of blanket bog.
Salmon conservation - Project Laxford
Working in partnership with conservation charity the Atlantic Salmon Trust (AST), we’re delivering a landscape-scale, ecosystem-wide, conservation project with the goal of restoring wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout populations.
The River Laxford has been a stronghold of wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout for centuries but in recent years their populations have seen a rapid decline, mirroring conditions throughout the North Atlantic.
Delivering this 10-year project, we hope to restore 118km2 of the landscape and plant up to a million trees, enhancing biodiversity and benefitting the whole ecosystem while enabling wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout to thrive. Project Laxford is one of the UK’s most extensive catchment-wide restoration projects and has been made possible through large-scale landownership which benefits from being under single management, and optimising the positive impacts of the works.
Find out more about Project Laxford here.
Delivering lasting commercial, social and environmental benefit
We provide sustainable employment opportunities, support local entrepreneurships and deliver a programme of educational visits. In 2022 we hosted two open days, one exclusively for local school children and a second for the public, where we welcomed over 250 people to learn more about how the estate is working to deliver a lasting commercial, social and environmental benefit.
We will continue to support plans for a community owned visitor centre which will house the Shelley Collection, one of the foremost collections of rare stones, minerals and fossils - acquired by the Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family to ensure it would remain in the Highlands. The proposed facility and visitor attraction will provide a lasting socioeconomic benefit to the community, boosting tourism, creating new employment opportunities as well as an amenity for the wider region.
Alignment with local or national plans
Reay Forest has six Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), areas which NatureScot considers to best represent the country’s natural environment, notably Foinaven which supports a typical range of upland habitats and species and is one of the largest designated sites in the UK.
There are two internationally important Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) safeguarding rare habitats and a designated Special Protection Area (SPA) for endangered birds – the Foinaven SPA which is designated for its golden eagles, of which there are several known breeding pairs on the estate as well as white tailed eagles.
We are proud to work with our local communities and partner organisations to help us meet our goals, including Marine Scotland Directorate, West Sutherland Fisheries Trust, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), deer management groups and Nature Scot.
The neighbouring communities of Scourie, which marches the west of the estate, Kinlochbervie and Durness to the north west, and Lairg – some 30 miles to the south east – support the estate with local services.
We are a significant employer in the region, just one of the ways we contribute to the rural economy. Many of our employees live and work on the estate and play an active part in the wider communities in the region, as part of local community councils, volunteer fire service and mountain rescue services, as well as supporting food banks and churches.
Through employee fundraising efforts, we support the High Life Highland charity which develops and promotes opportunities in culture, learning, sport, leisure, health and wellbeing across ten services throughout the whole of the Highlands, for the benefit of both residents and visitors.
We will continue to support plans for a community owned visitor centre which will house the Shelley Collection, one of the foremost collections of rare stones, minerals and fossils - acquired by the Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family to ensure it would remain in the Highlands. The proposed facility and visitor attraction will provide a lasting socioeconomic benefit to the community, boosting tourism, creating new employment opportunities as well as an amenity for the wider region.
Alignment with local or national plans
Reay Forest has six Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), areas which NatureScot considers to best represent the country’s natural environment, notably Foinaven which supports a typical range of upland habitats and species and is one of the largest designated sites in the UK.
There are two internationally important Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) safeguarding rare habitats and a designated Special Protection Area (SPA) for endangered birds – the Foinaven SPA which is designated for its golden eagles, of which there are several known breeding pairs on the estate as well as white tailed eagles.
We are proud to work with our local communities and partner organisations to help us meet our goals, including Marine Scotland Directorate, West Sutherland Fisheries Trust, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), deer management groups and Nature Scot.
The neighbouring communities of Scourie, which marches the west of the estate, Kinlochbervie and Durness to the north west, and Lairg – some 30 miles to the south east – support the estate with local services.
We are a significant employer in the region, just one of the ways we contribute to the rural economy. Many of our employees live and work on the estate and play an active part in the wider communities in the region, as part of local community councils, volunteer fire service and mountain rescue services, as well as supporting food banks and churches.
Through employee fundraising efforts, we support the High Life Highland charity which develops and promotes opportunities in culture, learning, sport, leisure, health and wellbeing across ten services throughout the whole of the Highlands, for the benefit of both residents and visitors.
-copy.jpg)